Central California Stone Mason Robert Pierson Featured in New Art Book by Noted Author/Photographer

While shooting the work of a designer in the Sierra Nevada foothills, noted photographer Paul Whitsitt was shown a collection of Robert Pierson’s spectacular stone masonry. It inspired him to write a book about the country's best artisans.

PRLog - Feb. 20, 2012 - OAKHURST, Calif. -- FRESNO, CA—Steven Paul Whitsitt has been commissioned to photograph prominent musicians such as Neil Young, Willie Nelson, and Bruce Springsteen. In addition, he has six books under his belt, most of which focus on unique art, architecture and design. While shooting the work of a designer in the Sierra Nevada foothills recently, he was introduced to a collection of Robert Pierson’s spectacular stone art.

“I only had an inkling of an idea for the book at that point,” Whitsitt writes in his preface to Built with Stone; Eight Contemporary Artisans. But that inkling turned into a book deal after he saw Pierson’s work. “I placed a call to Pete Schiffer at Schiffer Publishing to tell him a little about what I had seen so far and to suggest a book on artistic stonemasonry.” As a result, Built with Stone was published in December, 2011.

Robert Pierson says his approach to masonry is to create designs reflecting the rhythm and harmony of the surrounding natural environment, using materials that include flagstone, quartz, river rock, brick, and—often—indigenous rock from the client’s own property. Admirers of his work often comment on the animated quality of his creations. Rivers flow through extremely textured walls. The boughs of trees seem to course with life. On an ocean view lot in San Luis Obispo County, a sea otter lolls in the troughs of foamy serpentine waves.

“It’s movement, movement, movement I’m after,” says Pierson, who works primarily in the Sierra Nevada foothills and coastal areas of Central California (but is quite willing, he says, to go anywhere a job might take him). “I feel that the closer I can get to emulating nature, the more the project appears timeless.”

Born in Fresno, California, Pierson’s father was a mason and taught him the trade. His mother was an artist, and his wife, Lucy Hunt-Pierson, is a professional sculptor. It’s easy to see how artistic expression entered his stonework. But one will find a high degree of skill and experienced craftsmanship in his projects as well. “Before a mason can create an innovative style, one has to be accomplished in the more traditional aspects of masonry,” Pierson says.

Our masonry is unlike no other masonry. We use natural materials to create specacular, and unique fireplaces, walkways, walls, landscaping, fountains, and ponds. Our work can be found throughout California.